On which coaches he believes deserve opportunities…
“I was mad as hell that Patrick Ewing had to leave (the NBA for Georgetown rather than becoming an NBA head coach), after being an assistant coach for all those years with Houston, learning under (Jeff) Van Gundy (he was also an assistant in Washington for one season under Eddie Jordan, under Stan Van Gundy in Orlando for five seasons, and under Steve Clifford in Charlotte for four), playing for Van Gundy (with the Knicks), having the pedigree, playing for John Thompson (at Georgetown), clearly wants to be a coach. I’ve heard this sentiment said amongst a lot of guys who…just don’t see the opportunity presenting itself in the NBA for them, so they’ve got to go find it somewhere else. I just don’t think that that’s fair. I don’t think that it’s right (In terms of others who he believes deserve another chance, West also mentioned coaches Avery Johnson, Ty Lue, and Mark Jackson as well as former New Orleans general manager Dell Demps).
“I mean, I got a bunch of texts from black coaches over the last couple of days saying, ‘Man, thank you for what you said on Twitter.’ …Obviously some of those guys aren’t in a position to articulate things that I can say, but I know that that sentiment exists amongst them. The opportunities to fail, and then get another chance, are few and far between for black coaches. And we know that if you’re an executive, you’ve got to be damn near perfect, right?”
“I was mad as hell that Patrick Ewing had to leave (the NBA for Georgetown rather than becoming an NBA head coach), after being an assistant coach for all those years with Houston, learning under (Jeff) Van Gundy (he was also an assistant in Washington for one season under Eddie Jordan, under Stan Van Gundy in Orlando for five seasons, and under Steve Clifford in Charlotte for four), playing for Van Gundy (with the Knicks), having the pedigree, playing for John Thompson (at Georgetown), clearly wants to be a coach. I’ve heard this sentiment said amongst a lot of guys who…just don’t see the opportunity presenting itself in the NBA for them, so they’ve got to go find it somewhere else. I just don’t think that that’s fair. I don’t think that it’s right (In terms of others who he believes deserve another chance, West also mentioned coaches Avery Johnson, Ty Lue, and Mark Jackson as well as former New Orleans general manager Dell Demps).
“I mean, I got a bunch of texts from black coaches over the last couple of days saying, ‘Man, thank you for what you said on Twitter.’ …Obviously some of those guys aren’t in a position to articulate things that I can say, but I know that that sentiment exists amongst them. The opportunities to fail, and then get another chance, are few and far between for black coaches. And we know that if you’re an executive, you’ve got to be damn near perfect, right?”
